Top Annoying Misnaming People Do

- Speaking of uncultured teenagers, I've met a few girls who claim to "loooooooove" Kermit ("he's sooooo cute!"), yet they have no idea who Jim Henson is.

Click to expand...

Once in social studies class, the teacher was telling me that she took a picture of Kermit at the Smithsonian that she wanted me to see, and some girls (teenagers of course ) started asking me if I "looooooove" Kermit, and then they had no idea who Jim Henson was when I said that I found him rather attractive.

- I once wore my Animal shirt to school and somebody thought it was Elmo. Um, no. Polar opposite of Elmo, bud.

Click to expand...

I might have mentioned it on here already, but I found a shirt on Ebay, and the seller mixed up Oscar and Animal, but I can't remember which one was on the shirt, and which one the seller said it was.

And also, very cool that you wore an Animal shirt to school. We have uniforms at our school, but I wore a holiday shirt with Animal once on a free dress day near the Christmas break, and some of my friends, both the boys and girls, said that they wanted a shirt like it.

What? How can you not see that Janice is a girl? She's pretty clearly seen as Floyd's girlfriend on many occasions....
As someone who probably googles Janice (and the rest of the Muppets) more than a normal person should- lol- I've got to say- lay off of Janice already! (Boober sigh smiley-well, this will work.)

One misconception that bothers me is the idea that the Muppets (and all puppets) are somehow religiously-based or that the Muppet Show branded characters were geared for younger viewers. The Muppets, and all of Henson's work, have always been inclusive. It's weird reading YouTube comments from people concerned about Carl eating bunnies. Jim would not only have loved that bit, he also performed many just like it. And sure the Muppets have had many Christmas specials like most other branded entertainment, but the writers and performers have always come from all walks of life and the Muppets have never been proselytizing church puppets. I'm certain the new film will portray classic muppety goodness for all types of people and will set the brand apart from both Sesame Street and the edgy Henson Alternative humor. The Muppet Show gang is that something special between.

The only time I got the religious vibe was on one of those VH1 "I Love..." series and they were talking about Alice Cooper and him being "the Anti-Christ"... but then he did an episode of TMS, and they were like "Oh wait, he's on The Muppet Show, so he CAN'T be the Anti-Christ."

This isn't really annoying so much as funny, but I mentioned Jerry Nelson to one of my friends today, and her reply was, "Isn't that the guy who sings 'Great Balls of Fire'?" obviously confusing him with Jerry Lee Lewis. It's funny because, if you think about it, doesn't Jerry Nelson sound like a rockstar name?

This isn't really annoying so much as funny, but I mentioned Jerry Nelson to one of my friends today, and her reply was, "Isn't that the guy who sings 'Great Balls of Fire'?" obviously confusing him with Jerry Lee Lewis. It's funny because, if you think about it, doesn't Jerry Nelson sound like a rockstar name?

Click to expand...

LOL, I think when I was first learning about all the Muppeteers I was thinking something like that about him.

I know I already mentioned this, but... doesn't it get under your skin when someone asks for merchandise of a character that's so obscure there would never be merchandise featuring them at all? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but it sticks in your craw when they ask for these because you wish they had merchandise too.

One misconception that bothers me is the idea that the Muppets (and all puppets) are somehow religiously-based or that the Muppet Show branded characters were geared for younger viewers. The Muppets, and all of Henson's work, have always been inclusive. It's weird reading YouTube comments from people concerned about Carl eating bunnies. Jim would not only have loved that bit, he also performed many just like it. And sure the Muppets have had many Christmas specials like most other branded entertainment, but the writers and performers have always come from all walks of life and the Muppets have never been proselytizing church puppets. I'm certain the new film will portray classic muppety goodness for all types of people and will set the brand apart from both Sesame Street and the edgy Henson Alternative humor. The Muppet Show gang is that something special between.

Click to expand...

True- this does make it hard for the adult Muppets fan to maintain things like dignity and respect- lol. But you have to admit that generally people are gonna lump The Muppet Show in with Sesame Street and regard it on that level. It's the same argument as saying the Looney Tunes cartoons were really made for adults, but yet kids are probably the largest audience group for the cartoons. This same argument carries over to comic books for that matter. For mediums that have been associated with children over the years, it's hard for some to accept when those mediums (cartoons and comics) are used to tell stories geared at older audiences.
And a lot of Christian churches use puppets in presenting Christ's Gospel, certainly. I imagine that's probably true with various religions as well. Perhaps people associate all puppetry with that, but shows like Crank Yankers and Avenue Q certainly disprove that theory.
But puppets can be used for spiritual purposes and they can be used for plain entertainment purposes- sometimes they even do both.
And sometimes people don't always seem to make that distinction. But The Muppets seem to have generally stayed pretty wholesome for the whole family, but in the case of The Muppet Show gang- they've always had a bit of pervasive humor in there too, much like Looney Tunes.

The only time I got the religious vibe was on one of those VH1 "I Love..." series and they were talking about Alice Cooper and him being "the Anti-Christ"... but then he did an episode of TMS, and they were like "Oh wait, he's on The Muppet Show, so he CAN'T be the Anti-Christ."

Click to expand...

Well, in this case, I think the reasoning was not so much because Alice Cooper was on The Muppet Show, though they probably were just making a joke that since the show is generally aimed at children (or at least marketed that way)- that Alice Cooper must be okay if he's going to be on the show. However, I think the comment was probably brought up more so because in the '70s, he kinda was viewed as the Anti-Christ or something along those lines because of his subversive music and so forth- but in recent years, Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper's real name) has become a Christian and so now he's definitely not the Anti-Christ or in league with him, etc. Yet the Alice Cooper persona persists as his alter ego. I've read that Alice Cooper even teaches a Sunday School class at his church now- wow, that sounds like it'd be an interesting class.

A lot of people I meet seem to claim that JIM created Sesame Street--WRONG! Though Jim and his associates did indeed design, build and perform the many puppet characters that populated Sesame Street, the show was actually CREATED by Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now Sesame Workshop).

Another thing I hear people claim is that Jim's career BEGAN with Sesame Street--AGAIN, NOT TRUE! The start of his career predates Sesame Street by 15 years, with Sam and Friends, The Jimmy Dean Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and numerous commercials.

Another thing I hear people claim is that Jim's career BEGAN with Sesame Street--AGAIN, NOT TRUE! The start of his career predates Sesame Street by 15 years, with Sam and Friends, The Jimmy Dean Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and numerous commercials.

Click to expand...

That reminds me! I hate when people think the only Muppets that exist are Muppet Show Muppets; Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, etc. (Ex. "Grover's not a Muppet. He's from Sesame Street!")

A lot of people I meet seem to claim that JIM created Sesame Street--WRONG! Though Jim and his associates did indeed design, build and perform the many puppet characters that populated Sesame Street, the show was actually CREATED by Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now Sesame Workshop).

Click to expand...

I know, even Nostalgia Critic got his facts mixed up when he said the show was "put together by puppeteer legends Frank Oz, Jim Henson and a few others."